Flashy Truce
by Randomly Gone Insane
Summary: For better or for worse, the Autobots have disassembled the team and have gone their separate ways for the time being. Smokescreen is left with no human partner and very little experience in being a robot in disguise. A call for help is sent by the rookie, and Knock Out intercepts it. However, something in him decides to not answer it with violence; Takes place after Darkest Hour.
1. Chapter 1

He saluted them goodbye, like the good little soldier he was. He wanted to speak, to say some words of comfort, honor.. just something, but nothing could come to mind. Everything was so frantic, and time was short. The Decepticons were attacking the Autobot base, their Earth Home, and the current orders were to evacuate, and wait for further instruction about regrouping.

Smokescreen hated the idea of running away, not from the fight but from each other. The rookie accepted that they had lost this battle. The Decepticons had built their land base just outside of Jasper, just outside of the Autobot base, and were closing in on their base with the Nemesis. Running was the only option left if they were going to survive long enough to come up with an actual plan to save Jasper, Nevada, and save Earth from Megatron's tyranny. But he didn't trust the idea of the Autobots splitting from each other. If they were going to do this, if they were really going to save Earth, they needed to be together, not separated.

But this was was just his opinion, one he would hold quietly for the time being. Optimus gave the Autobots an order, and like a good little soldier, Smokescreen would follow that order. He had to follow it. Optimus was a Prime, and being a Prime gave him the collected wisdom of his predecessors, wisdom none of them could ever hope to achieve on their own. Whatever the plan was, it was well thought out and carefully considered by their leader. So, despite not knowing it, Smokescreen accepted Optimus' plan.

Smokescreen took one last final look at the remaining Autobots, the medic and the leader. Ratchet seemed to be distraught, both from the assault and the news of the Omega Lock being destroyed, while Optimus stood idly by, his face locked in an emotionless expression that he couldn't read. Smokescreen wished he had more time to study the Prime's face so he could gather some sort of reading. But something in his spark told Smokescreen that he would never be able to read that face, not even if he had all the time in the universe at his disposal.

Time had ticked on long enough, and Smokescreen lowered his servo from his head. He turned to face the glowing space bridge, transformed to his vehicle mode, and sped through the portal to his unknown destination.

He reappeared in the world... somewhere, still speeding away, which quickly became a very bad decision as nothing but a steep hill laid in front of the McLaren F1. As the bridge closed behind the Autobot rookie, Smokescreen clamped down on his brakes, sliding to a stop that would have jerked any human passengers forward and most likely cause them to smack their head against whatever was in front of them.

After letting out a small sigh, relieved he had managed to stop before launching himself up and over the hill, Smokescreen started to check his surroundings. He was in some sort of small clearing – a parking lot, or something like one, if he remembered that name correctly – and the ground was covered with small rocks, which weren't all that uncomfortable beneath him. To his right was a... Lake? Yeah, that's what it was. A lake. Not a very big one, but a lake none the less. The young soldier looked around a bit more, finding the parking lot was surrounded by the hill he almost sped in to, almost tricking him in to the idea that he had been trapped in this small parking lot until he saw a bumpy dirt trail that cut in to the hill, leading away up somewhere. Without a second thought, he gently rolled to the rough and bumpy path and followed the trail, hoping it would take him to a nice, smooth, paved road.

Smokescreen was curious about where he was. It seemed to be such a strange place. Everywhere he looked he could only see dried grass, brush, that lake, and mountains that rose high in the sky and enclosed the whole area in a valley, giving off a slight feeling of being trapped. Given the circumstances and situation back at base, however, there had been no time for anyone to ask where Ratchet and Optimus were sending them. The Autobots just went through the bridge, one by one, to their unknown destinations with the simple tasks to find safe shelter, and avoid Decepticon attention.

At least the others had the kids to help them through this plan, and keep them company. Sure, the others were experienced in earthly laws and customs and could manage just fine on their own. But nothing beats having a personal guide along in your journey in unknown territory, to say yay or nay to your decisions so you don't break cover, and to – perhaps most importantly – occupy the driver's seat of your vehicle mode. Nothing was worse than having that one driver who actually looked around their surroundings in traffic, and saw that the car next to them had no visible human driver.

Smokescreen found himself regretting that he never got the chance to tint his windows. At least then it'd be impossible to look inside and see he was empty on the inside.

Practically speaking anyway. He definitely wasn't empty on the inside. Nope, no way. He had a beating spark, flowing energon, and healthy organs functioning inside his body. And he definitely wasn't empty in a metaphorical sense either. Nope.

And yet... His spark pulsed with a sense of sadness at the last thought. He had no reason to be upset though. Sure, he was away from his squad mates at the moment, and left to face a new world all on his own, but that was no reason to feel sad! Smokescreen is a big, strong mech, who can take down anything that challenges him, and look damn good doing it too.

But that sadness in his spark remained, it's hold on him unshaken. And it started to eat away at him, taking the rookie's attention away from his surroundings as he began to ponder on this negative emotion.

He was big enough to admit that there was _mayb_e a valid reason for him to feel sad.

Things were looking pretty bad back at base. The Decepticons established a foot hold on Earth right outside the Autobot base, and they knew it too. And like the creeps they were, they started attacking. So his base, a place that was suppose to bring him safety, was being destroyed – if not already destroyed by now.

There's one reason.

The team was also, temporarily, disassembled. It was part of their safety and survival, so the Decepticons wouldn't find them all in one group and kill every one of them in one single attack, but separation always hurts.

That made two reasons to be sad.

So much for the maybe part.

A car horn started blaring, interrupting the thoughts of the young mech. Smokescreen had reached the end of the trail, and was now coming out on to the road right in front of a pickup truck, who was making no effort to slow down as they went down the road.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Smokescreen cried out, panic washing over him. When did he reach the road? Just a minute ago he was driving slowly along a trail that had deep bits and high rocks, all of it threatening to bump and batter his body from below. He didn't know what to do: drive forward or go in reverse? The pickup was closing the distance between the two vehicles, but the enraged driver had already swerved themself in to the other lane, moving around Smokescreen, the horn still going while they expressed just how upset they were with the sporty car by showing off their right middle finger.

His spark was pulsing hard. Not even five minutes in this new location and Smokescreen almost landed himself in some serious trouble. Had that human hit him... Primus, saying it would have been a complete disaster was putting it rather mildly.

His optics scanned the road. There was nobody else coming or going, save that disgruntled pickup driver, and there didn't seem to be much sign of civilization with the exception of a few houses that were built on the mountains, tucked away and isolated. It was so weird, seeing so very little human influence upon the earth. Based off of previous experience, an area either had a ton of human buildings or none at all.

And speaking of human influence and civilization, Smokescreen needed to find some, fast. Primus only knows how soon it would be before the Decepticons began tracking down the scattered Autobots, if they already hadn't started searching. Optimus' warning of how they were robots in disguise echoed in the back of Smokescreen's processor, which the young Autobot took as reassurance that his idea to find a human city was a correct method of hiding from 'Cons.

But... Which way was town? There wasn't exactly a sign clearly stating which way one was suppose to go. He was just left with two choices: left or right?

"Um." Had there not been a threat of death looming over the Autobots, and Smokescreen was blessed with company, his confusion and slowness to decide could have been humorous.

"...Right!" The driverless vehicle suddenly announced aloud. The McLaren F1 pulled on to the empty road, wasting no time in letting the speedometer quickly climb up the numbers written. Smokescreen grinned internally at the sound and feel of his engine humming so smoothly and beautifully.

Smokescreen chuckled. That driver from earlier was going this way. How long would it be before he caught up to them?


	2. Chapter 2

The road was a little less than ideal, but it wasn't any worse than Jasper's roads, and so much better than that pathetic trail he had to take just to get out of the little parking lot by the lake. The road was just a little unloved, and it showed in the cracks, the worn yellow paint, and the occasional small pit.

Smokescreen didn't pay much attention to the signs of age on the road though. They were nothing in comparison to how curvy this road was. Every time he got a little speedy there was a corner, forcing the young mech to slow down so he could safely turn without having an accident. The corners had been interesting at first, as they silently challenged the McLaren F1 with new obstacles he never saw in the flat lands of Nevada. But their challenges quickly lost their interest and became quite annoying.

"Stupid mountains." He mumbled, throwing a glare to the high hills and mountains that surrounded him. If it hadn't been for the ground, the roads probably would have been nice, long, and straight. He wanted to drive, to speed down the road, get the wind to caress his frame. There were no posted speed limit signs, which Jack had drilled him to search for thoroughly to avoid trouble with the human law enforcement, which told Smokescreen this was a place to let loose. But, as fate would have it, the Autobot was doomed to face corners that forced him to keep his speed roughly below sixty miles an hour, or whatever the term was that Jack had taught him.

As Smokescreen looked out on the horizon, curious to see if he'd be facing anything else besides more horrible corners, he spotted the pickup that almost clipped his front near at the lake. He repressed the urge to shudder at the thoughts of how painful and disaster the accident would have been, and instead chose to focus on a more positive reflection of the incident.

No doubt the driver was still riled up in some amount about the sport car's carelessness, and this brought on an odd sense of pleasure in Smokescreen. As he learned from Jack during his "driver's ed" lesson, messing with humans was a quick and easy way to get a laugh. And right now, he could really use a laugh.

As he cut around the next corner, Smokescreen was blessed with a small stretch of straight road, and he wasted no time speeding down, shortening the distance between him and the pickup. As he drew nearer, Smokescreen could see barely see the silhouette of the driver's figure leaning to their right, their head craned towards the rear view mirror. _Good, _he chuckled to himself,_ I have their attention._

As the distance between the two vehicles shortened, Smokescreen eased up on his throttle and matched the pace of the pickup in front of him, and was quite surprised at their speed. Only fifty whatcha-ma-call-it? Really? _Fifty?_ It was hard for him to process why anyone would willingly go so slow, especially when they had a rare opportunity of a straight road laying in front of them. No nasty corners forcing them to be slow, just very mild curves that any driver with good experience and good hands could handle. Easy stuff for Smokescreen.

"Come on. Let's go!" He barked at the driver in front of them, nudging himself forward a bit. The pickup ignored him, and Smokescreen thought he saw the driver shake their head. He let out a frustrated growl and looked at the pavement below him, where two yellow lines mocked him with their law to be uncrossed. Jack had taught him how important it was to not cross these lines, unless it was an absolute emergency. Smokescreen wondered for a moment if being caught in slow traffic counted as an emergency, but that thought was quickly answered as he remembered Jack's reply when he asked the boy the exact same thing.

**No.**

"Scrap... Come on, slow poke!" He honked his horn at the pickup, and nudged himself a bit further once more. This time, the driver responded by suddenly hitting their brakes, making red lights flare up in Smokescreen's vision. The Autobot rookie let out a small cry of surprise as he too had to suddenly use his brakes to avoid hitting the rear end of the other vehicle.

"Rude!" Smokescreen commented as the pickup released their brakes and started to continue on down the road as if nothing had happened. How could the jerk do such a thing? All Smokescreen wanted for the guy to pick up his pace a little bit. There was no posted signs anywhere, so why, for Primus' sake, was this guy choosing to be slow?

The rookie looked up at the driver and was a little surprised to see they had their right hand raised up, with all fingers down except for the middle one. He wasn't sure what to make of the hand gesture. Jack never mentioned human hand speech to him. The driver did it earlier by the lake, while their horn was going off for the brief few moments of passing. Given the behavior of this human, Smokescreen had a sense this wasn't exactly a show of kindness.

"Oh yeah buddy?" Smokescreen veered off in to the other lane and boosted his speed a small notch so he could keep pace with the pickup of his worst slow nightmares. The Autobot watched the driver, an older gentleman who sported a scowl on his face as he looked back at the sporty car, and found some amusement as the scowl slowly melted in to an expression of confusion as no driver could be seen within Smokescreen.

The Autobot partially transformed, his right arm coming out from his frame, raising up in the air so his hand was right beside the driver's side window of the pickup. Smokescreen mimicked the hand gesture he had seen the old man giving him twice now, and failed to hold back his amusement and laughter at the horrified expression of the gentleman.

He broke so many rules. It wasn't suppose to be funny. He was supposed to behave, and feel ashamed of himself for this misbehavior.

Yet, all Smokescreen could do was laugh at the whole situation, at the look the gentlemen was giving him, and he continued laughing as his arm rejoined the rest of his vehicle form and Smokescreen kicked up his speed another notch. Within seconds, the pickup was just a shrinking image in Smokescreen's rear view mirror, and his laughter slowly began to quiet down, the following silence killing his audio receptors.

The memory of Jack laughing alongside him when they pranked the boy's bully and boss haunted the back of his processor. They had laughed about those act of revenges long after they had been done; Smokescreen barely chuckled for more than a minute at the old man. His was amused one moment, then suddenly... Nothing.

The breaking of the Autobots was hurting him more than he ever thought possible.

His spark trembled, a surge of depression washing over him completely. Smokescreen held back his need to vent out the sadness through a sigh, and sped down the road even faster, hoping to out run the thoughts of loneliness that now played around in his mind.

Sadly, depression followed the young Autobot.

* * *

It seemed Smokescreen had made the correct choice in choosing to go right and briefly follow the gentlemen in the pickup. The further along he went down the road, more houses would appear, slowly but surely coming closer and closer together until they were bunched up like Jasper's homes. And it wasn't long after that did the bunched up homes started to turn in to buildings, some of which Smokescreen was a bit familiar with.

This town, whatever it was, was nothing like Jasper. Out in Nevada, things were quiet and the roads were empty and lonely, and the sun was always out, shining warmly on the earth. The streets here were filled with other drivers, and the air was cool while gray clouds blanketed the sky as far as the eyes and optics could see.

While it was reassuring to be in the midst of civilization and people again, Smokescreen was a little bit annoyed and bored. Jasper's coma-like state had spoiled him to speed along the roads once in a while when there was nobody around to bust him – which happened often when he managed to convince his patrol partner to split up. This town though had drivers everywhere, cramping him in and forcing him to behave.

Despite these flaws he saw in the town, Smokescreen found himself liking it. He was around other sentient beings again, which brought some amount of comfort to him even if there were no interactions between them.

Hopefully the others would call for him soon though. It would only be a matter of time before enough people took notice of the driverless sports car, and he couldn't risk letting rumors fly about for the Deceticons to possibly pick up.

But, it was also only a matter of time before he would get the call to regroup. He just needed to wait for the right moment.

Five days passed, and the comm links were disturbingly quiet. The radio silence was killing Smokescreen. How could no one make contact with him by now? He could partially understand why the other Autobots hadn't made contact with him. Without their base, the network system Ratchet made to amplify signals and secure wavelengths, his comm links were reduced to short range communication on open channels. And if he was limited to this method of communicating, then so were the others. So it was easy to see why none of his fellow freedom fighting Cybertronians called. They risked exposure if they did.

But the kids had communication devices. A cell phone is what Jack identified it as. Ratchet was able to link all of the kids' cell phones with every Autobot comm link. And Jack said so long as he had signal with the satellites in the atmosphere, he, or Miko, or Raf, could call any one of them at any time.

So why hadn't anybody called him?

There had to be a reasonable explanation for the long period of silence. There just had to be.

Maybe they were having trouble connecting? Or maybe they were waiting to hear from him?

What if he simply couldn't hear them? It was possible they were trying to make contact with him, but Smokescreen simply couldn't hear them.

It was an unlikely explanation, but it eased the anxiety in the young mech's spark. If he just sent out a message, sharing a rough idea of where he was hiding out, then maybe the others would race out to meet up with him. They would finally regroup and Smokescreen would be with his team, his friends, once more!

"He-Hey guys!" Smokescreen lightly chuckled, absolutely delighted by the thought of being able to interact with somebody so freely again, and his giddiness reflected in his driving as the McLaren F1 began to speed just slightly above the posted limit of the road. "Can you guys hear me? Because I can't hear you. But, uh, don't worry about it! I-I'm fine. I've managed to stay in disguise where I'm at.

"I.. Guys, where are you?" The Autobot slowed to a stop, a red traffic light glowing softly at him. _Perfect. I need a moment to think._ "I've been waiting for days but nobody has said anything. I'm getting worried." Seconds ticked by in a brief moment of silence, and the light turned green. Smokescreen excitedly started forward again, quickly searching for a sign that had the town name written.

"I'm in some city called... Selah? I don't know where I'm at beyond that, but you can find me. Right?" The lack of response was unsettling, but Smokescreen did his best to ignore the one sided conversation. "I'm going to stay here until I hear from you guys, which I hope will be really soon." At that, he ended the message. There was nothing else he could really say, nothing without getting in to how he felt lonely, and worried about their condition.

No, he couldn't think like this. The others were fine. They were doing just fine before without him, for a long time. And they were doing fine now. There was no way they would be taken down by some low life Decepticon, and he wasn't going to be taken down either! Not by any 'Con, or any negative thoughts of the processor!

* * *

"_I don't know where I'm at beyond that, but you can find me. Right?"_ The intercepted message echoed eerily from Soundwave as he stood before the Decepticon lord, who looked at his spy master with a slight sense of curiosity.

Megatron hummed quietly as he tilted his head off to the right a bit. "Soundwave." The silent mech rose his head slightly in acknowledgment. "I trust you can locate the lost Autobot for me?" The Lord rose an eyebrow at his request, and watched the other's visor closely for a reply. Within moment, Soundwave displayed a map with set of coordinates locked in. "Good," the head Decepticon purred with a sly grin.

"My lord," another spoke up from behind, and Megatron turned slightly to see who approached. His medical officer stood before him, touching a servo to his chassis and bowing slightly.

"What is it now, Knock Out?" Megatron almost growled his irritation.

Knock Out rose and lowered his servo to his side, wearing a slight smirk of confidence, "I couldn't help but overhear the message Soundwave was just sharing with you, Lord Megatron. And," his red optics flickered over to Soundwave's visor for a moment before they returned to the Decepticon lord, "I see he has successfully located from where that message was sent."

"You're boring me details I'm already well aware of. Get to the point."

"With your permission, I would like to go and exterminate the Autobot who sent the message, my liege." Knock Out quickly wrapped up, sensing the growing anger coming from his leader.

"Oh?" Megatron cooed curiously, turning to face his medic fully now. "And why is that?"

The red medic sneered, "pay back. I owe that Autobot for getting me stuck in that wall the last time we crossed paths."

"And what makes you think you stand a chance against him this time, Knock Out?" Megatron shifted his weight to one leg as he looked doubtfully upon his medical officer. "You've brought me more failures than you have victories. I have no reason to trust you with the task of offlining an Autobot."

Knock Out flinched at the mech's harsh words, which wounded him deeply. His gritted his teeth, repressing the anger he felt at the Lord's response. He couldn't risk any sign of emotion right now, because Megatron would no doubt just deny his request if the Lord simply didn't like the looks Knock Out gave in response to his cruel words.

"The Autobot is vulnerable, my Lord." He coolly replied, gesturing a servo to Soundwave. "He's made a cry for help and is expecting an Autobot to reply. He won't see me coming until its too late."

Megatron hummed lightly, and gave a slight nod of approval. "I will allow you to seek out and destroy this Autobot, Knock Out." The medic's grin grew wider in response. "But," the Lord growled as he stepped forward, looming over the red mech as he approached, casting a shadow over him.

"I do not want you coming back with another report of failure this time." He curled his lips back, showing off his sharp teeth. "You will exterminate the Autobot, or you will not come back at all. Do I make myself clear, Knock Out?"

Knock Out craned his neck upward, and struggled to keep himself trembling with fear as Megatron stood right over him. The Decepticon leader's threat struck fear directly in to his spark, which was trembling now anxiety.

"Y-Yes, my lord." Knock Out slowly stepped back from the gladiator. "I will not fail you.. Again."

As he turned away and headed for his lab to pick up his weapon of choice, the electric prod, it took every ounce of dignity left within Knock Out to not run away from Megatron, who quietly watched the medic make his exit before instructing Soundwave to forward the coordinates he found to the Vehicons currently in charge of the bridge controls. Even after he left, the medic swore he could still feel Megatron glaring at him, threatening to rip out his spark at any given moment. He briefly shuddered at the thought of such a painful death, and quickly pushed it aside.

"Rest assured, Lord Megatron," Knock Out quietly muttered under his breath as he entered his lab. "I will not let that rookie gain the upper hand over me again." He reached a servo out to grab his favored staff, which laid shrunk down and simply appeared as a harmless tool amongst the rest of his medical equipment. The medic activated it, and grinned delightfully as the prod extended out and sparked with dangerous amounts of electricity.

"He won't even realize what's happened to him when I'm done with him." He cooed as the prod lit up his face from below, casting maniacal shadows.


	3. UPDATE

Hey guys! Update here!

First off, let me apologize for dropping the ball on this. Long story short, I had to put the story down for holidays, and never managed to get back to it until only recently.

And looking back... Well, I'm gonna rewrite it.

Don't panic! The story is going to be the same! I'm just not happy with how I wrote the first two chapters, and I wish to redo them before continuing. Hopefully they'll be better this time.

So, thank you all for reading and sticking with me this whole time. More is coming so hang tight guys. 3


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